Loose Ends
by Mirrankei
Summary: After Children of Earth, Gwen Cooper is left to tie up any loose ends and settle Torchwood's affairs. But she can't do it all alone. Series of connected one-shots. Mentions other Whoniverse series  DW and SJA .
1. Loose Ends

Sarah Jane looked up from her book at a quiet knock on her front door. She frowned and put the book aside, glancing up at the clock. Luke and the others wouldn't knock, she knew. Maybe Rani's parents? Though there was no rapid tapping and repeated crying of "Saraaaah?", so perhaps not. (She even briefly thought of the Doctor, but one of him would probably tap with a cane, one would walk right in, the other two would either bang like mad or just climb in through the window, and all of them were more likely than not to just materialize in the attic and hop down the stairs.) The knock was quiet and uncertain, and Sarah Jane couldn't think of anyone who knocked like that.

She patted down her hair and opened the door. "Hello?"

The woman at the door had just started to turn away, but stopped at the salutation.

"Hallo, Miss Smith," she said. Her voice was somewhat raspy and rather quiet. She sounded exhausted, which matched her appearance. Dressed to kill, Sarah Jane thought, in her tight black jeans and leather jacket, but with the look of the walking dead - pale under her makeup, dark circles beneath her eyes that just barely peeked out from her fringe. "I'm sorry I didn't call ahead," she said, "I haven't gotten a new phone yet, and my old one - "

She cut herself off with a shake of her head. "Sorry."

Sarah Jane blinked, trying to place the voice. She didn't know very many people with Welsh accents, she'd never even been to Wales, so…

"Oh!" Sarah Jane said. "You were on the subwave network! With Jack, weren't you?"

The woman smiled wearily. "Yeah," she said. "Gwen Cooper."

Sarah Jane stepped back and beckoned to the visitor. "Please, come in, Ms. Cooper."

"I was just going to make some tea," she lied, as Gwen carefully wiped her boots on the mat (and what boots! Sarah Jane distantly hoped Gita hadn't seen her come in, all dressed in tight leather, what a field day she would have with this gossip). "Would you care for a cup? Or coffee?"

Gwen gave a little twitch at the word 'coffee,' but she just said, "Tea would be wonderful, thank you. Decaffeinated, if you have it."

Sarah Jane had Gwen sit on the sofa as she clattered about in the kitchen, finally unearthing a box of herbal tea behind the cereal and foregoing the kettle (still dirty) for the microwave. She had no idea what to _say_ to this woman, dressed like a movie superspy and working for a secret organization and quite possibly carrying a gun (a gun! In Sarah Jane's house!) but looking so despondent that Sarah Jane couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

She took the tea out, and they both sipped in silence. Gwen stared at the floor, unwilling to say why she'd come, and Sarah Jane looked at the ceiling or the wall or Gwen's boots, too uncomfortable to ask.

When a good ten minutes had gone by since she'd answered the door, Sarah Jane put her cup to the side and spoke.

"I - " Gwen looked up, startled, and Sarah Jane cleared her throat, embarrassed. "I heard… some of what happened. Not very much, of course, but Mr. Smith was monitoring the feeds, and, well, I heard Torchwood mentioned quite a lot."

Gwen nodded. "Yes," she said, fiddling with her cup. "We were… very involved. Though there wasn't much we could do."

Sarah Jane frowned. "But the UNIT reports said that it was Torchwood that finished it all. That you sent the 456 away."

Gwen laughed bitterly. "Yes, we beat them, in the end. Eventually." She leaned back to stare at the ceiling, and Sarah Jane felt a little jolt at the redness in them, the tears barely held back. "Jack did. _Torchwood_ did. A real victory for the British Empire."

Sarah Jane frowned even deeper at the word "empire," but put it aside for the time being. "Where is Jack?" she asked.

Gwen sighed. "No idea. Somewhere. Probably sulking on a rooftop. Haven't heard from him since it ended."

"But… he's your leader, isn't he? What about Torchwood?"

Gwen put her cup on the coffee table. "Torchwood's done," she said. "Probably. At least for now."

The woman leaned forward, staring down at her feet. "Jack's in mourning," she said. "We all are, me and Rhys and even Andy, a little, though he has no idea what the hell is going on, but Jack lost more than any of us." She looked up at Sarah Jane through her hair. "We practically lost _everything_, and Jack lost even more than that. We've lost the Hub, we've lost Ianto, and Jack lost his brother and his home and his daughter and grandson all in one week."

She leaned back again. "He might come back, someday, but until then, I'm all that's left of Torchwood Three. So as soon as I'm done with all this, I'm stopping. No aliens, no time travel, no _death_. I can't take it. It's not official, of course, I'm not taking Retcon. I guess…. I guess you can call it maternity leave, for now."

Sarah Jane remained silent while Gwen talked. This was… a lot to take in, she thought, and she wasn't even sure she wanted to know the whole story.

"I'm… I'm sorry I couldn't help," she said, unable to look Gwen in the eye. "I wanted to, but I couldn't get clearance to Thames House, and I had Luke and Clyde and Rani and Maria to worry about - I made Luke come back from college, you know, because I was so worried. Clyde and Rani weren't affected but I had no idea if Luke would be or not, because he looks out of the age range but he was only created two years ago, so… And I had Mr. Smith actually remove all their names from the school registry once the Prime Minister made that _godawful_ decision, and we all holed up in the attic with Maria on the webcam panicking…" She shivered. "There was nothing I could do. I was busy with being a mother, you know…"

She fell silent. After a few seconds she took a deep breath. "Maternity leave!" she said, forcing herself to look at Gwen. "You're pregnant?"

Gwen looked up in surprise, and actually smiled a little. "Yeah," she said.

"Is it Jack's?"

"No!" Gwen jolted upright at the question and glared at Sarah Jane, halfway between anger and amusement. "Why do people keep asking that?"

Sarah Jane smiled, a little embarrassed, but glad to get a reaction out of the woman. It was far better than the previous numbness. "Well it's just, in the TARDIS, you know, after we got the Earth back in place, Jack was telling us about you, his team. And he sounded so proud and loving, and, well, he's from the 51st Century, you know, and they're a little more open about being in love with lots of people at once…"

Gwen laughed, and Sarah Jane finally felt herself relax in the presence of the other woman. "Oh, Jack loved us alright," she said. "And we loved him. _I_ love him, but it's not the same kind of love that he and Ianto had, and it's certainly not like what I have with Rhys." She raised her hand with a smile, showing off the ring on her finger. "Whatever Jack and I had, it was never physical. Though that's not for lack of being hit on."

They both smiled.

Gwen sighed, but she kept a small smile on her face as she glanced to the side. "You're right though, about being a mother coming first. Since I'm going to have this baby, I'm not going to be able to go about saving the world every day. And since Jack's nowhere to be found, I have to take care of Torchwood's loose ends before I get too far along."

Sarah Jane nodded. She was glad they had finally breached the topic at hand, but she wasn't really sure she would be willing to provide the assistance Gwen had come for.

"When we… towed the Earth," Gwen continued, laughing a little at the notion, even though she'd been a part of it, "You had that supercomputer take control of the Rift."

"Mr. Smith," Sarah Jane provided.

"Yes, Mr. Smith," Gwen agreed. "He… well…" she trailed off, unsure how to continue. With another little shudder (she must have been exhausted, Sarah Jane thought, to be snapping herself out of those little trances so constantly), she met Sarah Jane's gaze.

"The Hub was completely destroyed," she said. "There are only ruins left, and we're recovering whatever we can. I don't think UNIT should get a hold on a lot of the stuff, and I feel I owe it to Torchwood to keep as much as we can. But the Mainframe, though we still have access to it, it's not safe as it is. I can't just hide it away. I don't know enough about computers or the system we used. I was hoping your Mr. Smith might be able to keep hold of the Mainframe's information, keep it safe."

Sarah Jane didn't say anything. Having made her request, Gwen fell silent as well, staring back into her hands. They sat for a long moment, the only sounds in the room the ticking of the clock and the whirr of a passing car.

"Let's go upstairs," Sarah Jane said.

Gwen looked somewhat shocked when Mr. Smith came out at Sarah Jane's beckon ("Mr. Smith, we need you…"), but Sarah Jane had a feeling it was more at the triumphant fanfare than the AI himself.

"Sarah Jane," Mr. Smith greeted, "and Gwen Cooper, I believe. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Smith," Gwen said, and Sarah Jane was glad to see the return of her timid smile.

"I believe you had a favor to ask of me?"

"Mr. Smith!" Sarah Jane chided. "Were you eavesdropping again?"

"I apologize, Sarah Jane," the Xyloc said, not sounding the least bit sorry. "I was curious what a Torchwood operative would be doing approaching the house." The abstract shapes on Mr. Smith's monitor changed color as he turned his attention back to Gwen. "Congratulations on the coming arrival," he said, "And I am very sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," Gwen said.

"Mr. Smith, Ms. Cooper was hoping you might be able to take care of the data from the Torchwood Mainframe for her," Sarah Jane said.

"Of course I have that capability," he responded. "If you give me access to the Mainframe, I can copy all of its information to my core, and make certain nobody can see it without my permission."

Gwen began fidgeting with her wedding ring. "The thing is," she said, "There is a lot of sensitive information in there. I can't risk anybody who isn't a part of Torchwood - " she glanced briefly at Sarah Jane, then back at Mr. Smith's monitor " - being party to things that might put us at risk."

"I understand perfectly," Mr. Smith said. "In downloading the data, I of course will know its contents. But I can assure you that nobody else will see the data without express permission from you or another Torchwood operative."

As Gwen resisted the urge to say _but there isn't another Torchwood operative_, Mr. Smith continued. "However, as my purpose is to protect the Earth, I must inform you that, in the event of a threat to the planet that the Torchwood Mainframe has information on, I will share that specific information - and no others - with Sarah Jane or Luke, in order to better defend from such a threat. Is that acceptable?"

Gwen thought for a moment, then smiled up at the computer. "That's fine," she said, then looked to Sarah Jane. "Is it alright with you?"

Sarah Jane smiled a little uncertainly. "Yes, I think that will work fine."

Gwen pulled a PDA out of her jacket pocket. "I think I can give you access with this," she said to Mr. Smith. "That's how I've been accessing it since we dismantled the warehouse…"

"Please, access it. I can take the login information from your device and use it to access the Mainframe myself."

"I haven't got access to all the security levels," Gwen said as she typed.

"Once I have basic access, I will be able to bypass security," Mr. Smith said. At Gwen's shocked look, he added, "As you are already entrusting the security of the Mainframe to me, I assumed it would not be a problem for me to hack in and make sure all the information is transferred."

"Right," Gwen said, and finished fiddling with her PDA. "Can you get it now?"

"I can," Mr. Smith said. "Thank you, Gwen. I shall inform you when the transfer is complete."

The computer fell silent as he worked. Sarah Jane waited a moment, then turned to Gwen. "Well, shall we go downstairs and have something to eat while we wait?"

Gwen smiled her tired little smile again, apparently relieved to have accomplished her mission. "That would be lovely, thank you."

Sarah Jane didn't have too much in the way of food in the house, but she managed a nice arrangement of cheese and crackers and fruit, as well as another cup of tea for them both.

"So you've been busy recovering your artifacts, then?"

"Among other things," Gwen said, nibbling on a slice of apple. "I'm sending everything to Torchwood 2, in Scotland. There's only one person there, of course, and there's not going to be any world saving going on, I think. But at least everything will be safe."

"Is it hard work, getting everything out?"

"Well, yes, it is. But it's not just me - Rhys runs a shipping company, you know, so we can transport everything easily enough, and between me and Andy we've managed to use the police to keep civilians out. And Martha and Mickey have been a big help with keeping UNIT out of the way, as well as digging things out…"

"If there's anything I can do…" Sarah Jane fell silent as the front door burst open with a cacophony of conversation.

Clyde was the first in the room, pushing past Rani as she laughed at something Luke had said. "Hey Sarah Jane! Got anything on the agenda today? Because there's this kid at school who _swears_ he's found some sort of freeze ray - "

He stopped short as he caught sight of the two women. Rani and Luke's conversation trailed off as well, and the three of them stood awkwardly against the wall.

Sarah Jane smiled. "Luke, you remember Ms. Cooper from the subwave network, don't you?"

Gwen smiled at her. "Just Gwen is fine," she said, and turned to Luke. "It's nice to meet you in person."

"Oh!" Luke said. "Yes, me too. It's very nice to see you again." He came up and shook her hand politely.

"Gwen this is, well, my team, I suppose. You know my son Luke, and this is Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer. Kids, this is Gwen Cooper, from Torchwood."

Rani muttered, "Nice to meet you," uncertainly, but Clyde brightened up.

"You're from Torchwood?" he said, grinning. "Aw man, Luke told me about you! You're like the Men in Black or something, right? Fighting aliens and wiping memories and things like that?"

Gwen smiled back, and Sarah Jane frowned at the sadness in her eyes. "Something like that, yeah."

"_Brilliant_," Clyde said, "Look, I was wondering, do you take on interns or anything? Because I've got all kinds of experience working with Sarah Jane and fighting the Slitheen and things, and I could definitely help out with whatever you want."

Sarah Jane opened her mouth to protest (It's no place for children, it's not safe, they use _guns_ and all their job openings are due to deaths - ) but Gwen just said, "No, sorry, we don't need any help right now."

Sarah Jane marveled at Gwen's unflinching tone as she referred to the _we_ that no longer existed, the easy lie that there wasn't any help needed. Gwen turned back to face her, and put her mug back on the coffee table.

"Thank you for everything, Sarah Jane," she said. "You've really been loads of help, but I should get back to the excavation. Rhys really shouldn't be handling it without me."

"Oh!" Sarah Jane said, rising along with Gwen. "But Mr. Smith - "

"He does have all my information, now," Gwen said. "I'm sure he'll contact me when he's finished. It was very nice to meet you all," she added, nodding to the children.

She headed to the door, but as Sarah Jane moved to follow, she was waylaid by her team.

"What's Mr. Smith doing?" Luke said.

"Why do you have all her information?" Rani added. "Are you working for Torchwhatever now too? What _is_ it?"

"_What excavation?"_ Clyde insisted. "We can totally help! We can dig stuff up no problem! Ask her! _Ask her!_"

Sarah Jane pushed past the trio as best she could, jogging out into the hall after Gwen.

"Wait!" she called, and Gwen stopped politely on the doorstep.

"We could help, you know," Sarah Jane said. "With your excavation. We're all very good at keeping quiet, and they're all rather enthusiastic."

Gwen smiled. "You have a good team," she said, then she lowered her voice so the trio of heads peeking around the corner into the hallway couldn't hear. "But it's really no place for children, even now. We've barely found any of the weapons so far, and at some point we're going to find the remnants of the morgue and cryogenics. I don't think any child should have to face that."

"No," Sarah Jane said, paling a little. "No, they shouldn't."

"Besides, you seem to have a freeze ray to take care of," Gwen added, laughing.

Sarah Jane smiled back. "Yes, you're quite right. We should get on that right away. But really, Gwen, if you ever just… need someone to talk to, or anything."

Gwen smiled. "I'll keep in touch," she said. Her eyes flickered back into the hallway, and she waved quietly at the kids. "Look after your team," she said.

Sarah Jane watched her leave down the driveway (and there was Gita across the street, oh _dear_, she was going to hear about this later), back to her husband and the remains of her life. "I will," she said.

She took a deep breath and turned back inside the house. "Now then," she said, "What's all this about a freeze ray?"


	2. Stolen Goods

Gwen stole things.

She had no doubt in her mind that was what she was doing. The policewoman in her said, often, _this is wrong, why are you doing this, that doesn't belong to you_, but the pregnancy and the hormones that came with it said _fuck it I'm gonna do whatever I want_.

It wasn't all that much she was stealing, anyway.

Books, for instance. A few books, about all kinds of things, from poetry to computer manuals, some science fiction, and the complete collection of James Bond novels, which were probably the most interesting. And one… autobiography, she supposed, though she knew she was kidding herself with that one. She was rather afraid to read it.

She also took a couple DVDs. She watched them with Rhys when he got home from work, and they ate pasta and ice cream while working through a pile of medical dramas. He never asked where they came from. She wasn't sure what she would tell him if he did.

Gwen had learned a lot about thieves when she was in the police. A lot of them stole things just for fun or as a point of pride, rather than an actual lack of funds to buy with. A lot stole for the adrenaline rush it provided. Gwen didn't feel any of that. When she started stealing things, she would feel awful, a lump of sick resting in the back of her throat as she sought her next treasure. She couldn't shake the feeling that it was wrong, so, so wrong to take things that didn't belong to her. By all rights, the things she took were supposed to stay put, stay locked up, safe from prying eyes.

But even with the mass of guilt pressing down on her, she couldn't stop. Because the things she stole comforted her. She was pregnant, god damn it, and she needed as much comfort as could be offered. She was allowed to be irrational. She needed all her closest friends by her side, supporting her.

The trouble was that most of them were dead now.

Rhys was great, of course, fully supportive of her, looking after her, cooking dinner, taking her out, cheering her up whenever he could. And all her girlfriends came over every so often and cooed about how great it would be to have a baby and how Gwen was _absolutely glowing_ and doing everything friends should. She talked with her parents on the phone at least twice a week, and they were tremendously excited of course, and her mother gave her all kinds of good pregnancy advice.

Really, it was selfish of her to want anything more. All this support, good friends, good family, good doctors. She didn't need to steal things to find happiness. What would her friends on the force think?

Except, well… Andy, at least, knew about her stealing problem.

He'd found her one night - god knows how, maybe Rhys had her followed out of concern - walking home in the rain, clutching a stolen laptop to her chest. He'd pulled up beside her, and she stopped and laughed at him with tears in her eyes, _going to arrest me, officer?_

He'd driven her home then, and she sat in the front seat, not behind the grating where criminals belonged. He didn't even confiscate the laptop. She went inside and he followed, and she made them coffee with a stolen cappuccino machine.

He found her the next day, too, with a case full of stolen drugs.

Next week, with a stack of pornographic magazines.

$300 shoes.

A gold ring with another woman's name engraved in it.

An antique chess set.

A plush squirrel.

A handful of brightly colored badges.

A stopwatch.

Andy drove her back every time, never commenting on what she'd brought back this time. She'd sit silently in the passenger seat, and he would talk about his day, or tell her that this person or that said hello, that everyone wished her the best of luck with the baby, or complained about the weather, or poked fun at Rhys. Then he'd follow her up, making sure she was ok, and sometimes he'd stay for dinner or take her out for coffee, and he and Rhys would just act like nothing was wrong, like she was totally fine, even as she toyed with stolen goods right before their eyes.

They acted so damn normal she was angry. She sat alone on the couch sometimes, surrounded with the things she'd stolen, and she didn't know why nobody was trying to stop her. If this had happened before, someone would have stopped her. But nobody would, not any more, so she sat alone and tried to stop herself.

She fiddled with the piece of loot on her wrist, the one she'd been wearing since she first started, back when she could convince herself she had just picked it off the ground, when she thought she would give it back someday soon. She'd even gotten it cleaned and repaired so it would be nice when she gave it back.

She was pretty certain now: what was stolen was stolen, and it was never going back.

Rhys turned on the light, and Gwen looked up at him from where she sat on the floor, surrounded by her collection of stolen goods.

"Are you alright, love?"

Gwen stared at him blearily, blinking in the sudden light.

"No," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "No, Rhys, I don't think I am."

She made to stand up, but it was starting to get difficult as the pregnancy progressed, and she was too heavy for her own limbs, so Rhys swept around the sofa and pulled her into an embrace instead. They stayed on the floor, wrapped in each others' arms.

She took it back the next day. The DVDs, the books, the magazines, she separated them all out and put them back where they belonged. She packed the shoes neatly back in their boxes and stored them with the rest of the clothes. She carefully put Katie's engagement ring back in its padded box and left it on one of the packed shelves. The chess set went back with the decks of cards, in the chest next to the one with all the suits.

She walked away from the set of warehouses, and Andy met her at the corner, like he always did.

"Is that everything then?"

"Just about," Gwen said, and Andy drove her home.

They sat on the sofa and talked for a while, and Gwen felt better than she had in weeks. Her apartment looked like hers again, and with empty pockets came a lighter heart. An hour later, she showed Andy out, and assured him that she was feeling fine, and _yes you can come to see me tomorrow but would you please stop worrying all the time, I'm a big girl now, thank you, _and she closed the door behind him, turned around, and smiled.

She hadn't returned everything, of course.

She made herself a cup of tea with the cappuccino machine. She smiled, putting away the medkit, full of all kinds of useful alien medicines as well as more earthly remedies, then went to change out of her clothes. She removed the stopwatch from her pocket and carefully unpinned the badges from her shirt before putting it in the laundry. Back to the kitchen, and she put some sugar in her tea before sitting on the sofa and opening up the laptop, pausing to wipe it off with the screen-cleaning squirrel.

The thing was, she thought to herself, putting her tea down and taking off the leather wrist strap, it didn't really matter where the stuff was.

She told the part of her that was all hormones and bundles of emotion to stop worrying about everything, stop making excuses for her actions, and the policewoman in her was making a big deal out of nothing, really, because she hadn't actually stolen anything.

Because regulations said that everything belonged to Torchwood, and the Torchwood in her said _that means it all belongs to me, anyway._


End file.
